Prosodic markers and utterance boundaries in American Sign Language interpretation / Brenda Nicodemus.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Nicodemus, Brenda.

Series:

Studies in interpretation (Washington, D.C.) ; v. 5.

Series in interpretation, 1545-7613 ; v. 5

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

American Sign Language--Prosodic analysis.

American Sign Language.

Discourse markers.

Physical Description:

162 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Washington, DC : Gallaudet University Press, 2009.

Summary:

In interpreting, professionals must be able to convey to their clients the rhythm, stress, and length of phrases used by the communicating parties to indicate their respective emotional states. Such subtleties, which can signal sarcasm and irony or whether a statement is a question or a command, are defined in linguistics as prosody. In this study, the fifth volume in the Studies in Interpretation series, Brenda Nicodemus discusses the prosodic features of spoken and signed languages as well as the findings of her groundbreaking research on prosodic markers in ASL interpretation.

Nicodemus videotaped five highly skilled professionals as they interpreted a spoken English lecture into ASL. Fifty Deaf individuals viewed the videotaped interpretations and indicated perceived boundaries in the interpreted discourse. Nicodemus then examined these points for the presence of prosodic markers that might be responsible for the perception of a boundary. Her analysis delineates the characteristics of the ASL markers, including their frequency, number, duration, and timing. She determined the average number of prosodic markers at each boundary point and describes how the markers were produced sequentially and simultaneously under conditions of highly precise timing. The results in this seminal work suggest that the type of prosodic markers used by interpreters are both systematic and stylistic.

Contents:

1 Where the Edges Meet 1

2 What Is Prosody? 13

3 Beyond the Signs: Examining Prosody in ASL Interpretation 31

4 A Closer Look: Randomization and Case Studies 52

5 Frequency, Duration, and Number 65

6 Timing and Type 76

7 Bringing It All Together 96.

ISBN:

9781563684128

1563684128

OCLC:

262892133